Tag Archive: motivations

OK, it’s not totally limited to outdoorsy types, but it does have an inspirational message attached to some pretty amazing outdoor footage, so there ya go. Hope it helps you through your hump-day! Revelation, a Visual Poem. from sebastien montaz-rosset on Vimeo. Last Updated: Wednesday, January 30, 2013

40 years ago, a 13 year old boy from La Canada Flintridge named Tim Taylor climbed Sequoia National Park’s Milestone Mountain and left a note at the summit with his name and address, asking whoever summited next to write him a letter. Last month, Oakland resident Larry Wright stumbled upon the note while on an 11-day trek with his similarly-aged…

A few months ago, my friend and former LA Hiking-Blogger Kolby ‘Condor’ Kirk was running out of cash on his trip north on the Pacific Crest Trail. I posted about it here and many of you were extremely kind enough to join me in donating a few bucks to help him on his way. Last night, Condor posted a pretty…

A few months ago, my friend and former LA Hiking-Blogger Kolby ‘Condor’ Kirk was running out of cash on his trip north on the Pacific Crest Trail. I posted about it here and many of you were extremely kind enough to join me in donating a few bucks to help him on his way. Last night, Condor posted a pretty…

Whatever you’re doing right now, stop. Put away all distractions, put this video on full-screen HD, turn up your speakers, and get ready to watch some of the most gorgeous time-lapse outdoor footage you’ve ever seen, courtesy of Dustin Farrell and the American Southwest. Landscapes: Volume Two from Dustin Farrell on Vimeo. Last Updated: Monday, October 10, 2011

For those of you who don’t know, my friend and fellow (formerly) L.A. based hiker Kolby Kirk (pictured in trail mode at left) has been hiking the Pacific Crest Trail for a few months and has recently hit a snag. Earlier this year, Kolby was laid off from work and decided that was a good cue to hike the trail…

Consider this motivation to organize your own Mount Whitney hike next year – Tyler Armstrong, a 7-year old boy from Yorba Linda, has summitted Mount Whitney in under 24 hours. Tyler and his dad left Whitney Portal around 2AM and returned just before 7PM, and now wants to try to climb all the world’s mountains. While I don’t necessarily…

The next time you’re out at your favorite hiking destination, be sure to pack your video-recording device. If you take a good 360-degree panorama, Jansport might give you a cool $10,000. As part of their “What’s Your Outdoors” contest, the veteran pack-maker is asking outdoor-lovers to record clockwise panoramic videos of their favorite natural areas. They’ll be stitching them all…

If you haven’t seen this yet, it’s worth a minute of your time. No matter how hardcore your last hike was, it pales in comparison to Drew Bristol’s recent descent into the Marum Volcano on Ambrym Island in Vanuatu. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAxj2ob_JoU[/youtube] Bristol said this particular expedition took 10 years of planning, and he is scheduled to return to the volcano for…

I came back from Lone Pine last week after summiting Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the Lower 48. More than probably any other hike I’ve done over the years, this one seems to be sticking with me much longer. Days after returning to the traffic and smog of Los Angeles, when I close my eyes I can still find…

I just stumbled across this feature article on the Sierra Club’s web site and had to share it – former L.A. Times columnist Brendan Buhler has written a fantastic piece on L.A.’s relationship with the Angeles National Forest. In the article, he touches upon the area’s human and natural history, highlighting some of the unique issues that face our little…

A 22-episode webshow called “The Season” hit the internets on the Arc’teryx website. It’s just a teaser trailer, but it seems pretty interesting – following 5 different outdoor athletes through a single season in the Pacific Northwest as they attempt to conquer their various realms of expertise. It’s by the same guy who did The Dirtbag Diaries, and looks pretty…

A 22-episode webshow called “The Season” hit the internets on the Arc’teryx website. It’s just a teaser trailer, but it seems pretty interesting – following 5 different outdoor athletes through a single season in the Pacific Northwest as they attempt to conquer their various realms of expertise. It’s by the same guy who did The Dirtbag Diaries, and looks pretty…

In early May, Kolby of 100hikes.com decided he wanted to hike 100 times before the end of 2009. Last night he finished the task with a group of friends on a rainy night hike to Echo Mountain, the first hike he did as part of this journey. I met Kolby on a landmark hike of my own – my second…

Since people seemed to dig the last HD time lapse video I dug up, I decided to share a new one that just made its way to the surface of the web. This one was shot in the Swiss Alps by a Swiss physicist named Michael Rissi, who is also using a fancy Canon camera. This series is twice as…

Something about the cooler weather in Southern California makes me want to spend a lot of time in the desert. Other than the spring bloom season, the winter is, by far, the best time to visit a desert park. Daytime temperatures won’t boil you alive, nights are chilly and brisk, and the entire atmosphere is calm and quiet (if you…

While trolling the interwebs for some outdoorsy hiking news (and becoming utterly disheartened by the ridiculous level of sunken discourse of those “town-hall meeting” protests), I remembered what I was able to do this weekend – I hiked a beautiful trail to the peak of Mount Islip, sat in the sun for a half an hour by myself, and read…

The Appalachian Trail – that world-famous 2175-mile-long trek from Georgia to Maine – teaches lessons to everyone who walks it. From what I can tell based on the stories I’ve heard, most of them seem to end with “hiking this trail has opened your eyes, and now you can never live in the city again.” But the Massachusetts-based Eagle-Tribune newspaper…

… and no, it’s not me. Sadly, biking to work on L.A. streets with an old-school thermos full of micro-roast coffee doesn’t count for badassery points, even though it totally should. Even if it did, though, I’d pale in comparison to Oregon’s 90-year old Carrol Dubuar. Dubuar is a retired Forest Service employee who hikes weekly with a group of…

… and no, it’s not me. Sadly, biking to work on L.A. streets with an old-school thermos full of micro-roast coffee doesn’t count for badassery points, even though it totally should. Even if it did, though, I’d pale in comparison to Oregon’s 90-year old Carrol Dubuar. Dubuar is a retired Forest Service employee who hikes weekly with a group of…